Cash indicator and register



(No Model.)

B. H. MURDOGK. CASH INDICATOR AND REGISTER.

Patented July 11,1893.

FIG.3.

a FIG.4.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDI/VIN H. MURDOOK, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

CASH INDICATOR AND REGISTER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 501,153, dated July 11,1893. Application filed February 13, 1893. Serial No. 162,077- (Nomodel.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EDWIN H. MURDOOK, a citizen of the United States,residing at Oincinnati, in the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cash Indicators andRegisters; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear,and exact description of the invention, reference being had to theannexed drawings, which form part of this specification.

This invention relates, more particularly, to the peculiar form ofcash-indicator seen in Letters Patent No. 484,917, granted to me October25, 1892, although some of my present improvements are applicable tovarious c011- structions of such machines.

One of the features, capable of being used with my old form ofindicator, is an automatically-acting pawl that prevents a set ofcounters being shifted within their inclosing housing by any shaking orvibration of the machine, as hereinafter more fully described.

Another feature, applicable to the old machine, is a novel combinationof devices for advancing a record bar that shows how often a set ofcounters has made one complete circuit through the inclosing housing orguide, as hereinafter more fully described.

In order still further to improve the old machine,l have combined in asingle device, a plunger that operates the counters, a stem that carriesa tablet, another stem around which is coiled an elevating spring, and arod that operates a drawer-opener, as hereinafter more fully described.

The principal improvement, applicable to cash-indicators in general, isa novel way of arranging and operating the money drawer or till, whichdrawer is never locked, neither is it coupled in any manner to thecabinet, nor to any attachment or operative part of the machine, but isfree to be opened at any time. It is the intention, however, that thedrawer shall be normally closed,in which po sition its inner end simplybears, either directly or indirectly, against a spring under tensionwithout, however, being coupled thereto. But as soon as a key or otheroperating device is struck, to actuate the indicating appliances, thisspring is liberated and instantly initiates the opening of the unlockedor un coupled drawer, as hereinafter more fully described.

Another feature, applicable to ordinary in= dicators, is an automaticdetent which can be used in some cases to prevent the drawer beingopened by inclining the machine forward, as hereinafter more fullydescribed.

In the annexed drawings, Figure 1 is a vertical section taken from frontto rear of my improved cash indicator, said section being taken in theplane of one of the plungers,

which is elevated, a portion of one of the housings being broken away,and the money drawer closed. Fig. 2 is a vertical transverse-section ofa portion of the indicator taken at the irregular line Z-Z, of thepreceding illustration. Fig. 3 is an enlarged View of the devices thatoperate the reoord bar of the machine. Fig. 4: is an enlarged plan ofthe drawer spring and its accessories, the drawer being closed, and thespring under tension.

The inclosing case or cabinet A is of any desired shape and has near itstop a pair of windows a, a, at which the tablets are exposed, ahorizontal partition B being fitted in the base of said cabinet for thesupport of the principal operative parts, the essential members of whichare annular guides orhousings 0, arranged substantially as described inmy patent No. 484.,917, each housing being prolonged upwardly, as at o,to admit the lower portion of a plunger D, carrying a knob or button 66,that is numbered to agree with the tablet operated by said stem.Furthermore, the lower end of this plunger is slotted vertically at d,for a purpose that will presently appear, a lateral extension E of saidplunger being provided with two stems F, G, that project in oppositedirections, the upper stem F being provided with an ordinary tablet f,while the lower stem G has an elevating spring g, coiled around it.isabar against which, the lower end of spring 9 bears, and e is acushion or pad that limits the upstroke of the extension E. Dependingfrom one side of this extension is a rod H, having near its lower end ashould er h, said rod being adapted, at the proper moment, to passthrough an opening I) of partition B, which opening is seen in Fig. 2.

Hung upon a suitable support and adapted to play between the two partsof the housing,

and also to traverse the slot 61, of the plunger, is a pawl I whosefront end bears against one of the numbered counters J, while its rearor short end 1' is so arranged as to be struck by the stem G when it isforced down. These counters are arranged and adapted to be operated inthe same manner as in my patent previously alluded to, one of saidcounters being provided with an outwardly projecting pin j, whileanother counter has an inwardlyprojecting pin j, adapted to be struck bythe re-setting device K.

Hung upon a rod extending across the machine, or suspended from thehousing 0 is an escapement L, having a pair of teeth Z Z, that engagewith the teeth of a bar M, the front or smooth portion of which an isnumbered to afford a record of every complete circuit of the counters J,a pulling spring m, being provided to draw said bar forward whenmomentarily released by said escapement.

N is a pivoted stop-plate extending across the machine, and normallyforced up against a pin a by a spring a.

O, is a sliding money drawer or till, the outer end of which has nohandle or other pull attached to it, because the opening of said draweris automatically initiated every time a plunger is forced down, whichmovement is effected in the following manner. Attached to the inner endof this drawer are blocks 0 0, which, when said drawer is closed, mayabut against the opposite ends of a plate spring P, but usually theycome in contact with specialbearings p p, of said spring but do notcouple to nor engage with said bearings. The upper edges of thesebearings are inclined to permit the ready engagement of lever-latchesR,R pivoted to the sides of the cabinet, and having their front endsnormally forced down by a pair of springs r, r. S is a bar connectingthese latches, which baris located under the rods II.

T, is a bell, thehammerof whichi is usually carried by bar S, but, ifdesired, this hammer may be operated by the drawer, when opened orclosed.

U is a stump to which the spring P is fastened, at its mid length.

a" is a recess in the bottom board of the cabinet to admit abalanceddetent, V, which is adapted, when said cabinet is inclined forward, tocome in contact with the inner end of a groove o in the bottom of themoney drawer, and thereby prevent said drawerbeing opened by tilting themachine eitherforward or backward, but when the machine is practicallylevel, this detent is inoperative.

W, IV, are windows that permit the proper numbers of the counters andrecord bar being read, which windows are to be applied to. an innercase, not seen in the drawings, as such devices are quite common in thisclass of machines.

To illustrate the operation of my improved machine, I will suppose thevarious parts of the same are in the position seen in Fig. 1,

the plunger and its attachments being now elevated, and the pawl I incontact with one of the counters J in the short horizontal portion ofthe casing 0. Furthermore, in this normal position of the machine, thedrawer O is closed, its blocks 0 0, in contact with the bearings 19 p,of the spring P, and all the tablets f are raised above the windows a,a, and thus concealed. Again, the spring P is now held under tension,because the lever-latches R, R, engage over the bearings 19 p, of saidspring. Such being the normal position of the machine, it will bereadily understood that when the button (1 is struck, the plunger D willbe forced down, thus carrying the extension E, stems F, G, and rods 11with it, and as the stem G descends, it strikes the heel i of pawl I,and swings the latter up sufliciently to traverse the slot (Z of saidstein. Consequently, said plunger is free to complete its stroke and actupon the upper counter in the vertical portion of the housing, and thusdrive all the counters forward within the latter. But this full descentof the plunger is only for a moment, and when it recedes sufficiently tobring its shoulder h, in contact with the under side of stop-plate N, asindicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 1, the further ascent of saidplunger is arrested, in such a position as to expose its tablet at theWindows a. a. As the plunger is thus elevated, the pawl I swings forwardto its normal position, thereby preventing any shifting of the counterswithin the housing. At the completion of the down stroke of the plunger,the rod H strikes the cross bar S, with such force as to depress it, anddisengage the latches R, R, from the bearings pp, and as each end ofspring P is nowliberated, they instantly fly forward a limited distance,and initiate the openingof the money drawer. IVhen the drawer is againclosed, its blocks 0, 0, strike the bearings 19, p, and bend the ends ofthe spring back until said bearings re-engage with the lever latches, inthe manner above described. It is evident the depressed tablet willremain exposed as long as the shoulder h is caught under the stop-plateN, but the instant another plunger is operated, its shoulder will swingdown the free edge of said plate, and thereby release the shoulder ofthe first plunger, which latter instantly ascends as far as pad 6 willpermit. Consequently, the first tablet is now concealed, and the secondtablet exposed. Every time the plunger is depressed, the counters J areadvanced in the direction of the arrow, seen in Fig. 3, and sooner orlater the outwardly-projecting pin j, strikes the escapement L in frontof its pivot, therebyinclining said escapement and bringing its fronttooth l in contact with one of the teeth of record bar M, but raisingthe rear tooth Z above said bar. But as soon as this pin passes beyondthe escapement, the stress of spring m, tends to advance the bar M, androck the escapement in the opposite direction, which act depresses therear tooth Z, and causes it to serve as a stop that limits the fartherforward movement of said bar, as shown in Fig. 1. Therefore, it will beseen that every time the counters describe a complete circuit throughthe housing, the pin j operates the escapement and allows the bar M toadvance the distance of one tooth, and by numbering the extension m, toagree with the teeth, said bar will afford an exact record of all themovements of said counters, which latter can be reset at any time bycausing the rod K to operate against the inwardly-projecting pin j, inthe manner described in my old patent. The absence of any handle or pullfrom the drawer O, and the convex outer end of the same, renders itimpossible for the drawer to be opened without using some specialappliance, and if the machine should be inclined, for the purpose oflaunching said drawer forward, the balanced detent V, will strikeagainst the rear end of groove '1), and form a positive lock, until themachine is restored to its proper position. But if the machine is tiltedrearwardly, for the purpose of disengaging the detent, it will then bearagainst the front end of said groove, thereby showing that the cabinetor case must stand about level to allow the drawer to be opened. In thisnormal or level position of the cabinet, the drawer is perfectly free tobe opened at any time, because it is not locked to the case by a detentor fastener of any kind, neither is itpermanently nor temporarilycoupled to any attachment of said case, nor to any appliance operatedeither by the registering or indicating devices.

I claim as my invention- 1. The combination, in a cash-indicator andregister, of a housing, a series of independent counters traversing thesame, a plunger that advances said counters, a pawl that prevents themshifting, and a stem carried by said plunger and operating said pawl, inthe manner described.

2. The combination, in a cash-indicator and register, of ahousing, aseries of independent counters traversing the same, a plunger thatadvances said counters, a lateralextension to said plunger, a stemprojecting above and be low said extension, a tablet'carried by theupper portion of said stem, and a retaining pawl operated by the lowerportion thereof, for the purpose described.

3. The combination, in a cash-indicator and register, of a housing 0, aseries of independent counters J, traversing the same, a plunger D thatadvances said counters, a lateral extension E, of said plunger, a stem FG, projecting above and below said extension, a tablet f carried by theupper portion F, of said stem, an elevating springg coiled around thelower portion G thereof, and a retaining pawl I, operated by said lowerportion G, in the inannerdescribed, and for the purpose stated.

4,. The combination,in a cash indicator and register, of a housing, aseries of independent counters traversing the same, a plunger thatadvances said counters, a stem carried by said plunger, a tablet mountedupon said stem, another stem carried by said plunger and surrounded by acoiled lifting-spring, and a pivoted pawl operated by the latter stem,all as herein described.

5. The combination, in a cash-indicator and register, of a housing, aseries of independent counters traversing the same, a plunger thatadvances said counters, a pin j, projecting outwardly from one of them,a pivoted escapement L, having teeth H, and operated by said pin in themanner described, and a toothed bar M, provided with a pulling springon, for the purpose stated.

6. The combination,in a cash-indicator and register, of an unlockeddrawer O, a longitudinal groove '0 in the bottom thereof, a recess a" inthe cabinet base, and a balanced detent V, fitted within said recess,for the purpose described.

7. The combination, in a cash-indicator and register of a drawer that isneither locked to nor otherwise engaged with any part of the machine, adevice that normally tends to open it, a retainer that holds this devicein check, and an appliance that liberates said retainer when the machineis operated, as herein described.

8. The combination,in a cash indicator and register, of an unlockeddrawer, a spring that normally tends to open it, a pair of leverlatchesthat hold said spring in check, and a rod that disengages said latchesfrom said spring when the machineis operated, substantially asdescribed.

9. The combination, in a cash indicator and register, of an unlockeddrawer O, a springP that normally tends to open it, a pair oflever-latches R, R, that engage with the ends of said spring and hold itin check, a bar S uniting said latches, and a rod II that actuates saidbar, said rod H being carried by a plunger D, that operates the machine,in the manner described.

10. The combination, in a cash-indicator and register, of a plunger,registering or counting devices operated by it, a money drawer that isneither locked to nor otherwise engaged with any part of the machine, adevice that initiates the opening of said drawer, a retainer that holdsthis device in check, and an attachment to said plunger for releasingsaid retainer, substantially as herein described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

EDWIN l-I. MURDOOK. Witnesses:

J AMES H. LAYMAN, ARTHUR. Moons,

